14 out of 15
by SadieYuki
Summary: Valerie finds Danny Phantom sitting in the park. She charges up her gun, aims at his back, and then..."I wasn't good enough," he mumbles.


**I got the inspiration for this story from a Spiderman fanfic that I read about a year ago, called **Just a Face on a Train, by katheryne**. Their story was about a woman who had been on the train that Doc Ock attacked in the second movie, making her someone that knows of Spiderman's identity. She works in a small diner, and one day, she sees Peter enter the diner, and she starts to talk to him and finally reveals that she was on the train with him. Everyday thereafter, Peter would come in and chat with the woman. One day, he comes in, but something is obviously upsetting him. When she questions him, he says there was a fire, and he tried to save everyone, but there was one person he couldn't get to in time…yada yada yada, and I won't spoil the end of the story, but that was essentially what inspired this fic. **

**Disclaimer!! I do not own Danny Phantom, otherwise Dan Phantom would have broken out of that thermos and caused a little more havoc before the series ended.**

******

Valerie Grey frowned, looking at the thinned cloud of smoke in the sky. She would have helped put out the fire, but she was so _sure_ she had seen the ghost dog that had ruined her life. She stood on her stationary board, hovering over the smoldering ashes of the once standing apartment building. One of the lingering firemen was talking to his partner, unaware of the Red Huntress hovering above them.

"It's a good thing the ghost kid showed up when he did, if he hadn't—"

Valerie's eyes blazed. _The ghost kid?! That creep, he must be around here somewhere then!_ Valerie kicked her board into overdrive and activated her ghost radar. Sure enough, a steady blip indicated a nearby ghost, and Valerie took off.

--

He was just sitting there, moving slightly with the sway of the swing. The chains gently creaked, the only sound in the small playground.

_Element of surprise,_ Valerie smirked. _You're not getting away this time, ghost._

She silently deactivated her board, dropping a couple of feet to the ground outside of the playground. Valerie stealthily crept up behind the ghost boy, on guard in case he suddenly went on the attack. As Valerie neared her target, she started to hear small sounds coming from the ghost kid, and she noticed he was shaking slightly...wait, was he _crying?_

Valerie shook her head a bit. The ghost kid, crying? No way. Reassured, Valerie continued her silent trek.

She was about a yard away now, and if she had wanted to, she could have reached out and touched him. She was surprised the ghost kid hadn't noticed her yet.

Valerie charged up her gun, aimed at his back, and then—

"I wasn't good enough," he mumbled.

Valerie started, dropping her gun a fraction of an inch before steadying herself again. "Of course not, _ghost_," she spat. "You're just a lowly ghost who ruins people's lives."

Phantom sighed. "I guess you're right."

That surprised Valerie. Usually, he said something about _helping_ people, or some witty banter, but now...he seemed so miserable...

Valerie stared at the boy's black and silver hazmat, looking at the burn marks. Ash muted his normally silver-white hair. "What were you doing at that fire?"

Phantom visibly tensed.

"You probably started it—"

"Of course I didn't!" Phantom yelled, spinning around in his swing to look at Valerie.

She was startled as she gazed upon the boy's face. Phantom's normally vivid green eyes were dull and subdued, his tanned face was gashed and covered with soot...and tear stains.

"Then why were you there?"

Phantom looked down. "I was trying to save them. I thought I had! But..."

Valerie sighed. She was _so_ going to regret this.

After another aggravated sigh, Valerie sat down in the swing adjacent to Phantom, finally deactivating her gun.

"The firemen seemed to think you helped," she said awkwardly. She wasn't used to having to comfort her worst enemy.

"I tried to, but..." Phantom stopped, taking a ragged breath. "I thought I had gotten everyone out. He said...he said that there were only fourteen people who lived in the apartment. And that's how many I saved...but..."

"What?" Valerie pressed.

Phantom took another breath. Wait, he was _breathing?!_ Valerie filed the information away for later, focusing on the issue at hand: her biggest enemy was having a break down.

"Some kid was having a sleepover, so there were really fifteen people, and I...he just _died_. I couldn't save him. Why do I always fail at everything?!" Phantom burst.

There was a brief pause in which Valerie could only hear Phantom's heavy breathing (which was still weird; ghosts can't breath, can they?).

"You didn't know."

"What?" Phantom blinked.

"You couldn't have known someone was still in the building. It wasn't your fault."

"But I _should_ have known! I _should_ have saved him! It _is_ my fault! I'm supposed to be the hero, heroes don't let people die!" Phantom ranted, tears returning to his eyes.

"Even heroes mess up sometimes," Valerie said quietly. "You may not have been able to save one person, but you saved fourteen others. That's an accomplishment, isn't it?"

"I should have saved them all—"

"You're not perfect!" Valerie snapped, startling Phantom. "No one is! No human or ghost!"

Phantom sat still for a moment. "Why are you here? No, I don't mind!" he quickly added, seeing Valerie's anger returning swiftly. "It's just...I thought you hated me, so...why are you helping me?"

Valerie tried to spit out a quick retort, but whatever she was about to say stuck in her throat. "I-I'm not sure," she said finally. "I just saw you sitting here and I thought it would be an easy shot, but—" Valerie looked away. _Why _am_ I helping him?_

"Well, either way, thank you for stopping," Phantom muttered with a small half smile. "If you had shot...I probably wouldn't have moved."

Valerie's eyes widened in surprise. The ghost boy had been that close to just giving up? For some reason, the ghost boy provided a sense of consistency in her life, a constant threat that would always have to be expunged. If she had shot, and Phantom would have ceased to exist, that feeling of security would be gone...

As much as she was helping him now, he had helped her just as much.

In a weird way, losing Phantom would be like losing herself.

"Well, anyway," Phantom started, lifting Valerie out of her thoughts, "I should probably get going."

"Yeah," Valerie muttered.

Phantom rose from his swing and hovered a bit over her. "Uh...thanks again," he mumbled awkwardly.

"This doesn't change things!" Valerie said hurriedly. "I'll still hunt you! But...maybe I won't try to destroy you anymore."

Phantom chuckled, "Sounds like a plan. Night, Valerie!" He waved quickly and then flew off, eventually disappearing into the dark sky. Valerie stood motionless for a moment, then reactivated her board and flew off as well.

_Good night, Phantom,_ she thought with a small smile.

******

**So there it is. I hope you enjoyed it!**

**I encourage you guys to check out my profile, and my website, which provides a more in depth look into all of my stories, including this one. I hope you guys check it out!**

**On a completely random and unrelated side note, I hope everyone is staying healthy, especially with the current H1N1 situation. At least 40 kids at my school have been diagnosed, with around 15 current cases at the moment. Thankfully, I have yet to be affected, however, a good chuck of my friends have had it (two of which have it right now), so let's put my immune system to the test why don't we? :D On the upside, if I do get infected, then I'd have a full week devoted to reading and writing fanfiction, haha. On the downside, I would have one week's worth of two AP courses to make up, and that would be worse than the swine flu itself. A friend of mine is currently experiencing that problem. The poor guy is missing an entire chapter of AP Calculus. I do not envy him.**

**Okay, enough rambling :D Thanks for reading you guys! Peace out!  
****Sadie**


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